


saat 
39, GS/4/ 
but 72 
Bulletin No, 70 March 20, 1923. 


COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 





DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL APPAIRS 
James F, Woodward, Secretary 


ee a i ae es 


BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
George H. Ashley, State Geologist. 








——S ————=— 





soot eos 
=< 


ZINC OXES AT FRIEDENSVILLE, 
LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNA. 


By 


Benjamin LeRoy Miller, 


ne eet ne cnet anne entree ag 


Location. 


The most important zine deposits in Pennsylvania are at Fricdens- 
ville, in the Saucon Valley, three miles South of Bethlehem. They 
have yielded large quantities of high grade zinc ore in the past and 
may be expected again to: become an important factor in the zine pro- 
duction of the country, although the mines are not operating now. 

Zinc ore has been found in paying quantity only in a very restricted 
area at and about $ mile northwest from Friedensville. 


History. 


Karly in the ninetcenth century an’unusual mineral was found in * 
the soil on the farm of Jacob Ueberroth, # mile north of Friedensville, 
but it was not until 1845 that this strange mineral was identified as 
calamine, a Silicate of zine. 


In October 1853 Samuel Wetherill completed the construction of 
furnaces for the production of zine oxide from calamine by a process 
of his own invention, These furnaces-at Bethlehem had a capacity of 
2000 tons per annum and on October 13, 1853 zine oxide was produced 
from the Fricdensville ore on a commercial scale for the first time. 
This was the second successful attempt in the United States, the New 
Jersey’Zine Company having begun the manufacture of Zinc oxide at 
Newark, New Jersey, in 1852, 


The first spelter was produced in July 1859 at Bethlehem in the 
first entirely successful zinc furnaces in the United States. A mill 


me 


ee at ae 





for rolling sheet zine started operations in 1865, 


From 1853 to 1876 the Lehigh Zine Company overated its Friedens- 
ville mines without interruntion and without local competition until 
1875. The Bergen Point Zinc Company overated mines on adjoining 
PROPERLY 2 rom 1075 sto.) LOBd, 


In 1881 the Friedensville Zine Company was organized and it 
operated the mines, with few interruptions, until November.1895, since 
which time the mines have all been idle. The New Jersey Zine Company 
now owns all but one of the mines. 

It is estimated that 50,000 tons of spéelter and 90,000 tons of 
Zinc oxide, valued at approximately $20,000,000, have been produced 
from the Friedensville zine ores 


Character of the Ores, 


The Zine ores first worked in the Friedensville region consisted. 
almost entirely of calamine, together with some smithsonite mixed 
with the residual clay formed by the decomposition of the country 
rock which is Beekmantown limestone. With increasing depth of work- 
ing the calamine and smithsonite decreased rapidly and zine blende 
(sphalerite) intimately associated with pyrite and marcasite became 
more common. 


4 
e 


The calamine was found in irregular segregations in the clay, in 
fissures in the limestone, or in the porous partially silicified 
Limestone, often in botryoidal or staiactitic forms. Sheets or plates 
from 2 to 3 feet square and from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch 


thick are’ said to have been frequently found in the crevices in the 
limestone, 


The smithsonite was usually inconspicuous and occurred as white 
scales or granular masses coating the calamine or blende, or on the 
walls of the limestone fissures, or as yellowish-brown porous masseS. 
The larger part of the smithsonite mined was amorphous and occurred 
in botryoidal, stalactitic, or laminated masses, 


The Friedensville sphalerite or zinc blende is of a peculiar 
character, essentially unlike any other found in the country. In the 
main it oceurs as compact gray to bluish black to black masses having 
a prominent conchoidal fracture and rarely showing any traces of 
crystallization. Much of it resembles dark blue limestone, from 
which it is readily distingnished, however, by its greater specific 
gravity. 


Pyrite is almost universally founec in association with the 
Sphalerite in massive form. In many places the sulphide ore consists 
mainly of pyrite. The large amount of pyrite has been one of the 
most objectionable features of the sulphide ore, 


Other minerals found in the Friedensville veins are marcasite, 


et mh 


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melanterite, greenockite, goslarite, hydrozincite, sauconite, kaolin, 
quartz, calcite, aragonite, and limonite, 


Ores of the Friedensville region are remarkably:‘free from 
objectionable minerals such as those containing lead, arsenic and 
antimony, and for that reason the spelter and oxide made from them 
always commanded the highest price, 


Occurrence of the Ores. 


The Friedensville district is underlain by sharvly folded and 
faulted Beekmantown limestone, Slickensided surfaces and fault 
breccia indicate displacements of the rocks, Such evidences of move- 
ment as can be obtained indicate that movement was principally along 
bedding planes, 


The limestone was minutely shattered by the earth movements, a 
condition which permitted the active circulation of water and promoted 
mineralization of the area, The limestone strata and the main ore 
veins at the Ueberroth and Old:Hartman mines on the north side ofa 
fault are practically Wertical, while at the New Hartman, Correll, and 


Three Corners omines the principal ore veins and enclosing limestones 
dip S 35°- a5 


The more persistent ore veins are conformable with the bedding 
planes of the limestones and represent the filling of the openings 
between the different beds enlarged by solution, or, in places, the 
substitution of beds of considerable thickness by sphalerite and 
purite subsequently altered near the surface to calamine, smithsonite, 
and limonite. In places the veins were ag much as 20 feet in width, 
although in the main only a few feet wide. They varied greatly in 
width even though they were continuous for great distances, 


The veins following the joints are approximately at right-angles 
to the principal veins. 


The ore bodies pitch along the strite to the southwest.at an 
angle of about 20°, 


he veins parallel to the limestone strata with a direction of 
N. 30°E, were remarzably persistent, The Stadiger vein in the 
Veberroth mine was worked along the strike for a distance of about 
1000 feets On the other ,nand, the cross veins following the joints 
with an average strike of N. 10° Ws were comparatively short. Where 
the two sets of veins intersected the ore bodies were largest and 
richests Some of these masses of ore were as much as 60 by 20 feet 
in size, 


The vertical extent of the ore bodies has not been determined, 


as ore was found in the greatest depth explored which was about 300 
fect at the New Hartman mine. 


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The origin of the Friedensville zine deposits is uncertain and 
there is a justifiable difference of opinion in the explanations 
offered by various geologists. The writer believes that the pre- 
Cambrian gneisses of southeastern Pennsylvania, most of which were 
igneous, carried pyrite and magnetite and some form of Zine minerals, 
Their disintegration furnished the material for the thick Paleozoic 
sediments of this region. In the long ages when Cambrian and 
Ordovician limestones were being deposited, the iron and zine mincrals 
must have been carried to the sea and precipitated in minute 
disseminated particles in the limestone as sulphides and carbonates, 


While much of the iron and Zinc may still exist as disseminations 
in the limestones, locally they have been concentrated through the 
action of circulating meteoric water. If descending water was the 
transporting agent the deposits would not extend much below ground 
water level. As the water table at present is within 30 feet of the 
Surface and the ore deposits cxtend at least 300 fect deep, with every 
indication of continuing to greater depths, the conclusion seems 
warranted that ascending waters must have brought the sphalerite and 
pyrite to their present position. This conclusion is valid unless it 
can be shown that the ground water level formerly lay at much greater 
depth than now, Indications however are that the level of ground 
water has been continually falling as erosion has deepened the valley. 


In the formation of the Friedensville zine deposits it is 
believed that downward percolating waters containing carbonic acid 
derived from the atmosphere and organic mattcr, sulphuric acid 
derived from the oxidation of pyrite, and possibly some organic acids 
dissolved the small disseminated particles of Zine and iron carbonates 
and sulphides and carried them in solution to places where the water 
found an casy cscape upward such as occurs in the shattcred and faulted 
zones near Friedensvillc, 


The pyrite and sphalerite were deposited in part in the fissures 
through whith the solutions passed and in part as metasomatic 
re’ tacements of the limestone, At the intersections of fissures 
th¥ough which solutions were passing the mingling of waters of some- 
what different composition caused increased precipitation and resulted 
in the formation of the great masses of ore already described. 
Metasomatic replacement of the dolomitic limestones seems to have been 
much more important than precivitation in existing fissures. The dense 
black finely crystalline masses of sphalerite preserve the texture of 
the original limestone. 


The deposits as originally formed consisted almost entirely of 
pyrite, marcasite and sphalerite, ‘Calamine; smithsonite, limonite, 
greenockite and much of the quartz, calcite, and dolomite are all 
secondary and are the products of alteration by surficial waters, 


Near the surface nearly all the sulphide ore was changed although 
some veins probably more compact and less permeable were altered to a 
depth ef only a few feet. In the Ueberroth mine great masses of 


~4- 





calamine found at the greatest depths worked, about 225 feet, show an 
unusual depth of alteration. There is strong probability that some 


of the more permeable veins will yield oxidized ore at considerably 
greater depths, 


Descriptions of Individual Mines. 


Ueberroth Mine, 


The Ueberroth mine was the largest and most profitable 
of all the Friedensville mines. Worked continuously from 1853 to: 
1876 and for short periods in 1886 and 1891 it produced about 300,000 
tons of calamine and smithsonite ore. In no other mine in the region 
did the oxidized ore continue to such depths. To a depth of 150 feet 
the oxidized ores were found between loose blocks of limestone, some 
of enormous size.‘ At that depth, however; the limestone became solid 
and the ore veins, 12 to 40 feet in width, had well-defined walls. 
The limestone strata and the main ore beds which lie between them are 
Sb Ne at at vertical in the Ueberroth mine with a strike about 
N. 8 ° 


There were two very important veins in this mine known as the 
Stadiger and Trotter, both of which were worked continuously for a 
Short distance along the strike of about 1000 feet. Another important 
ore body was known as the Blende vein, This vein was not worked so 
extensively on account of the larger amount of sulphide ore which it 
contained. At the deepest level worked this vein was well-developed 
and yielded ore running about 30% zine. One-third of the ore was rich 
enough to be sent directly to the smelters, the remaining two-thirds, 
however, requiring concentration, 


Several shafts were sunk at this mine but these have been 
destroyed by caving. At present the old open pit which is approxi- 
mately circular and measures about 480 feet in diameter is filled with 
water to within about 30 feet from the surface, Nearly all the 
buildings which were formerly near the mine have been completely 
razed while the pumping engine house and office, the only ones 
fempaning "areyan ruing. 


Old Hartman Mine, 


About one-fourth mile southwest of the Ueberroth 
mine is the 01d Hartman mine now consisting of two open pits about 
400 by 250 feet in extent, both nearly filled with water. As in the 
case of the Ueberroth, the 01d Hartman tine was first worked exclu- 
Sively for calamine and smithsonite but large bodies of blende were 
encountered nearer the surface than in the Ueberroth mine, The 
oxidized ores were worked to the depth of 150 feet although much 
sulphide ore was found nearer the surface, The last work done in this 
mine was the driving of a slope to work a fine vein of sphalerite ore. 


The limestones of the Old Hartman mine show much brecciation but 
are now less cavernous than in the Ueberroth mine. The water problem 
here was less serious than in the Ueberroth mine and the mine was 
operated for a yoar after the large engine at the Veberroth pit was 


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Stopped, Had grouting been employed the necessary pumping might have 
been considerably reduced. At the present time the water level in 
the two openings is somewhat lower than in the Ueberroth pit which 
Seems to show an independent source, 


The Old Hartman mine was worked both by open cut and by shafts 
sunk in the limestones. The vein system is similar to that of the 
Ueberroth mine although no veins were followed for so great a distance. 
The veins of the two mines seem to be entirely distinct. 


Correll Mine, 


The Correll or Saucon mine is about one-eighth mile south- 
east of the Old Hartman mine. It was actively worked as early as 
1859 and much of the time between that date and 1881 since which it 
has furnished little orc. The mine produced less oxidized ore in 
proportion to the sulphide ore than did the Ueberroth mine, The mine 
was worked by open cut up to 1876, after which underground mining 
predominated, and extended to a depth of 200 fect. The limestone 
Strata and the principal ore veins which lie between them dip 5 30° = 
40-, The limestones are regular and show few effects of disturbance 
ox of; soluvion, 


In 1876 a 12-foot vein of sulphide ore was being worked. In 
depth this increased to 40 feet and in one place to 50 feet. The 
whole length of working in the Correll mine was about 700 feet along 
the stric., The veins were worked to the western limits of the 
property of the Correll cstate and arc continued in the New Hartman 
mine, 


The open pit of the Correll mine now partly filled with water 
measures approximately 200 x 300 fect, 


New Hartman Mine. 


The New Hartman mine adjoins the Correll property on 
the west. This is the. only mine in the region that was exclusively 
worked by underground methods. ‘The ore was struck in a vertical shart 
at a depth of 110 feet and continued downware to a depth of 200 fect. 
Very little oxidized ore was found, When work ceased the principal 
ore vein was said to be 50 feet wide, Its strike was almost east and 
west and dipped S, 35°. 


Three-Cornered Lot Mine. 


This mine is east of the Fricdensville- 
Colesville road a short distance northeast of the Friedensville Church. 
The open cut partly filled with water is irregular in shape with an 
average diameter of about 250 fect, Here as in most of the mines 
open-cut mining finally gave way to underground mining and several 
veins were followed which undoubtedly belong to the same system as 
those of the Correll and New Hartman mines and have the same general 


strike and dip. The limestone strata exposed dip 5S. 35° and strike 
N. 85° #, 


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Future of the Friedensville Mines, 


A common belief exists that the Friedensville mines were closed 
on account of the exhaustion of the ore. This is incorrect as the 
ore bodies were as large in the lowest workings as near the surfacc, 
the veins giving no evidence of dying out with increased depth, and 
the sulphide ores showing little change in tenor, How much ore 
remains is purely a matter of conjecture but one can predict with a 
high degree of assurance that the mines will still furnish a large 


tonnage of sulphide ore as well as considerable calamine and 
Smithsonite ore, 


Another frequently-reported cause for closing the mines was the 
threatened litigation of the farmers whose wells were drained by the 
pumping required to keep the mines free of water. This explanation 
is likewise without foundation as the Courts have repeatedly upheld 
the prin¢iple that no mining company is liable for damages incurred 
by the withdrawal of water from previous users so long as this is 
necessary in order to renove the ore and the water is neither sold 
nor disposed of in such a manner as to damage other property. 


The chief reason for the principal operating company, The Lehigh 


Zine Company, closing its mines,’which consisted of the Ueberroth, 


the Old Hartman, the New Hartman, and Three-Cornered Lot mines in 
1876, was the inability to compete with the New Jersey Zine Company 

in the manufacture of zine oxide made’from the gine ores of Stirling 
Hill and Franklin Furnace, New Jersey, or with the companics operating 
in the Middle West in the production of spelter. 


The present owners have not announced their intentions regarding 
these mines but it is probable that the mines will again become 
active producers; 


Selected Bibliography. 


Anon. Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zine Company: Mining Magazinc, vols l, 
ppe 544-546, 1853; vols II, pps 994100, 1854, 


Andrews, T., Report on the Mines, Manufactures and Condition of the 
Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zine Company, 12 pp,., New York, 1863, 


Rogers, Hi D., The Geology of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Second Geol. 
Surve Meer L yok. mis) (OO) NGO Os 


Drinker, H. S., The Mines and Works of the Lehigh Zine Company; 
(abstracty: Trans.’ Amex. Inst.( Min.) ing.) vole 1, pp. 67-75, 187i. 


Genth, F, A., Preliminary Report on’the Mineralogy of ‘Pennsylvania: 
Pennsylvania Second Gedl. Survey, Report B, ppe 15, 18-20, 57, 69, 
LOomeiey ee icO=1ee, 149 ols d6S 165 166) Harrisburg, 1875, 

Lesley, J. P., The Saucon Zine Mines in Lehigh County: Pennsylvania 
Second Geo. Survey, Summary Final Report, vol. 1, pp. 436-443, 1892, 

Kenp, J. Fi, Ore deposits of the United States and Canada, second 


ii 


3 0112 077640545 


